Family Update- End of Summer

 We are always flush-faced if we are outside in the AZ heat.

 But actually, I had just gotten home from the gym. My new favorite thing is Step Aerobics. The teachers are so awesome and I get a killer good/fun workout. I have gotten into a six-days-a-week workout habit that has got me feeling GREAT. I have learned that I am all or nothing. If I tell myself "3 days a week"...I will procrastinate. I like having a "streak" of days in a row, and trying not to break it.

 Samuel has a three-week break in between semesters. It's been fun having him home.

 Ella is such a Parrot lately ! She said the entire alphabet (one letter at a time) by just repeating it from Kalia. She's also gotten to be a bit stubborn at bull-headed. But she makes up for it by being absolutely adorable.

 Kalia and Annie took 4 weeks of swim lessons, and it surprised me by helping them a lot with "real" swim strokes.

 Ella is doing pretty good at swimming herself. She will jump off the diving board or the side of the pool (too often, actually) and she won't wear floaties. She bobs up and gets her face out of the water, but that's it. She stopped swimming horizontally since this new face-bob thing, but oh well. Still progress.

 We threw a little surprise birthday party for my wonderful sweet father-in-law.

Ella started sporting a ponytail.

I was diagnosed with skin cancer (basal cell carcinoma.) I had it removed, and they did two layers of stitches, which itched and were SUPER red (still are, one month later.) Here's the stitches.

 Annie took this picture of me getting the stitches taken out. It would be awful to have some taken of your face. The skin cancer itself was only about the size of a fingertip.

 Ella is also a monkey. This is all she wanted to do at Lake Powell. You have to have a VLC player to watch this clip.